Convincing wins for Manchester-United, City, Real in Champions League

London: Manchster United and Manchester City recorded convincing wins in the group stage of Champions League football while 10-man Real Madrid cruised past Turkish side Galatasaray.

In Berlin, Leverkusen suffered a heavy debacle as Manchester United cruised to a 5-0 win in group A top of the table match Wednesday, reports Xinhua.

David Moyes` men secured their berth in the knockout stage following a dominant and clinical display on the road at the packed BayArena. Wayne Rooney was clearly the man of the match as he had large shares on victory owing to four assists.

"United taught us a lesson. They capitalised on our errors. I hope we can learn from this defeat. Until the second goal the game was not too bad," Leverkusen coach Sami Hyypiae said.

United lead group A with eleven points, followed by Shakhtar Donetsk with eight points, Leverkusen with seven points and Real Sociedad with one point.

At home in Manchester, City`s prolific goals gave them a 4-2 victory over Viktoria Plzen on Wednesday, which keeps City`s hope of topping Group D in the UEFA Champions League.

Having already qualified for the last 16, the English Premiership side chose to make some changes to the list of first team. After being dropped for the last five matches, England goalkeeper Joe Hart return to first team.

Sergio Aguero goals from a 33rd-minute penalty put City ahead, but Plzen tied the score at halftime. Samir Nasri regained the lead for City with a 65th-minute volley. Four minutes later, Stanislav Tecl slotted home and made another tie. Negredo contributed to the 3rd goal. Dzeko expanded the City`s lead and had the final say.

The result kept City three points behind Bayern Munich who have beated City 1-3 in England. The two teams will meet again next week at Munich`s home ground. City needs to win 3-0 or by a two-goal margin if they score four or more times in the match to move to first of the Group, securing an easier last-16 match.

Anderlecht`s 19-year-old center Chancel Mbemba scored the team`s first goal at home court in the Champions League campaign. Benfica failed to clear a corner and Mbemba controlled it and shot under goalkeeper Artur in the 18th minute.

Nemjana Matic equalised in the 34th. Mbemba deflected a shot by Nicolas Gaitan into his own goal in the 52nd to give Benfica the lead.

Massimo Bruno fired in a low shot and levelled again in the 77th.cRodrigo sealed the thrilling win for Benfica in the 90th.

The Belgian champion remains the bottom of Group C and ends its European campaign, while Benfica goes level on points with Olympiakos which lost 1-2 to Paris Saint-Germain, but stayed second on goal difference.

In Rome, Italian outfit`s Juventus, riding on Arturo Vidal`s hat-trick, boosted its hope of reaching the knockout stages of the continent with a 3-1 win over FC Copenhagen.